Reliquary Chasse Depicting the Martyrdom of Saint Thomas à Becket

This small chest with a gabled top is a reliquary, once used to house remains thought to belong to Saint Thomas à Becket, and comes from a convent in Pont-à- Mousson, France. The front depicts the murder of the saint, and the top his burial. The ends display unidentified saints, while the back, which would have opened with a key, is decorated with quatrefoils. This is one of only approximately fifty-two known Limoges chasses depicting this saint in collections in the United States and Europe, and is one of the larger among them.

Thomas à Becket was the archbishop of Canterbury, born around 1118 to a Norman family who settled in London. He was murdered on December 29, 1170, in Canterbury Cathedral, by knights of King Henry II after years of disagreement with the king; he was canonized in 1173. Becket was especially venerated in England and France in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, and most of the known chasses can be dated between 1195 and 1220. On this work, Saint Thomas turns from the altar to confront two assailants, one of whom strikes his head with a sword. In the panel above, his body is placed in a tomb by kneeling figures, while an archbishop, holding a crozier, gives a blessing. The treelike elements that flank the burial group are unusual and are found on only one other chasse; on other Limoges enamels, they signify an event that takes place outside, although the saint was buried in the cathedral's crypt.

In the technique of champlevé enamel, the ground glass colors fill cells that are recessed into a metal plate. Limoges, in central France, was famous for this type of work from the twelfth century on, producing thousands of reliquaries, crosses, and other ecclesiastical and secular works.